This invention relates to an internally divided water pipe and/or to a diverter valve which can be attached thereto. The invention will be described with reference to its use in water irrigation, but it should be appreciated that the pipe can be used for other liquids, or even fluids.
In crop irrigation, long pipes are laid to convey water from a water supply to the field. The pipe can be one or more kilometers long and water outlets are spaced along the pipe. Smaller diameter hoses can be attached to the outlets and irrigation equipment can be attached to the hose.
These long pipes are also called xe2x80x9cflumesxe2x80x9d. It is known to have flexible flumes which can be made from a rubberised canvas, flexible plastic, and the like. These flumes can be flattened and rolled up when not in use.
One current disadvantage with these extremely long pipes is that it is time consuming to open and close the various valves spaced along the length of the pipe, it being appreciated that the pipe can be several kilometers long.
The present invention is directed to a pipe which can replace current pipes or flumes and where the fluid outlets or valves can be turned off from a central location without having to separately turn off each valve along the pipe.
The present invention is also directed to a diverter valve that can achieve this function.
It is an object of the invention to provide a pipe and/or a diverter valve which may overcome the abovementioned disadvantages and provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.
In one form, the invention resides in a pipe to convey a fluid, the pipe having at least one fluid outlet along its length, the pipe having an internal flexible longitudinal dividing wall which can move between a first flow position where fluid can pass along the pipe and through the said fluid outlet and a second position where fluid is unable to pass through the at least one outlet.
In this manner, the internal flexible dividing wall can be made to move between its first flow position where water can pass along the pipe and through one or more of the fluid outlets, and a second flow position where water can pass along the pipe but is prevented from passing through one or more of the outlets.
The internal dividing wall can be made to move between its positions by diverting water along one or the other side of the internal flexible dividing wall. If water is passed along one side of the dividing wall, the wall will allow water to pass through the outlets, while if the water is passed along the other side of the dividing wall, water is prevented from passing through the outlet.
The pipe can be made flexible such that it can adopt a xe2x80x9clay flatxe2x80x9d configuration when not in use. The pipe can be made from any suitable material which can include polyethylenes, polypropylenes, laminated plastics, rubberised canvas, and the like. Of course, a rigid or substantially rigid pipe can also be used.
The pipe has at least one fluid outlet and preferably includes a number of outlets spaced along the pipe. These outlets may be fitted with stop valves and various coupling arrangements can be present to couple irrigation equipment to the pipe.
The internal dividing wall is flexible, and can be either flexible but substantially inextensible, or flexible and extensible (such that the internal dividing wall can stretch if required).
An advantage with having the internal wall flexible as opposed to rigid is that the wall can flex from one side of the pipe to the other side of the pipe. This means that when fluid flows along one side of the wall, the wall flexes such that almost the entire internal diameter of the pipe can be used. If the wall was rigid, this would result in an undesirable reduction in the available flow of water.
The internal wall can be formed by manufacturing a tube of flexible pipe and attaching to the outside of the tube a longitudinal wall (an embodiment of which is illustrated in FIG. 3).
To move the internal wall, a diverter valve can be provided, and in another form of the invention, there is provided a diverter valve attachable to a pipe of the type having an internal flexible longitudinal dividing wall which can move between a first flow position where fluid can pass along the pipe and through the said fluid outlet and a second position where fluid is unable to pass through the outlet, the valve having a valve member which is attachable to an end of the dividing wall and which can move the end of the dividing wall between opposed sides of the pipe, thereby allowing fluid to selectively pass along each side of the dividing wall.
The diverter valve can pull an end of the dividing wall between upper and lower positions which divert water into each side of the pipe.